From: Richard Ridge (richard_ridge@tao-group.com)
Date: Mon Feb 04 2002 - 06:36:01 MST
It has been understood for sometime that CofE church attendance is
declining - for example,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_518000/518563.stm showed that
only 816,500 adults attend 16,000 churches on Sundays, an average loss of 2%
a year since the 60s (The figures for 1997 confirmed a decline in Sunday
church-going from 1.6 million in 1968 to 1.04 million in 1995, the last time
figures were published). However, those figures also saw the introduction of
a new way of counting attendance, which saw these figures increase by 27% -
you count the people attending during the week as well as those attending
during sunday. I'm left wondering whether or not the church isn't boosting
these figures by counting people who attend _both_ during the week and on
Sunday, i.e. the same people twice over. Not to mention the fact that Sunday
is supposed to be the main day of worship - why does people not attending on
that day indicate the church to be more, and not less, healthy? Not to
mention the Sept-11th boosted figures for Christmas - quite why the church
seems so proud of the fact that it can only pack its churches once a year
(when a great many of the people attending are motivated more by nostalgia
than religious fervour) is also beyond me.
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/cgi-bin/news/item_frame.pl?id=166
Nearly 3 million Christmas worshippers in new benchmark statistics -
04/02/2002
The first set of national Church of England attendance and membership
figures to come out of the new, more rigorous data collection introduced in
2000 provide further proof that the Church has been under-counting its
worshippers. As these are the first year's results, there are no previous
statistics with which direct comparison can be made; but the figures will
form part of a new benchmark against which the Church can, in future,
measure itself.
Average Weekly Attendance and Average Sunday Attendance are more accurate
methods of counting people of all ages coming to church over a four week
period, usually during October. The introduction of minimum and maximum
figures for both weekly and Sunday attendance provides, for the first time,
a measure of the varying frequency of attendance among worshippers.
The new statistics include total attendance figures for Christmas
(2.85million) and Easter (1.63million) for the first time. They also provide
an accurate picture of the occasional offices administered by clergy in the
parishes that has not been available before. These include not only baptisms
and weddings but also funerals, marriage blessings and thanksgivings for the
birth of a child.
The figures put Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) at 1.06million worshippers
of all ages, in a range (over a typical four week period) between a minimum
of 780,000 and maximum of 1.45million. This compares with the old measure of
Usual Sunday Attendance (uSa) in 1999 of 0.97million. Average Weekly
Attendance (AWA) figures of approximately 1.3million, in a range from
860,000 to 1.86million, suggest the old uSa figures undercounted the numbers
in church each week by almost a third. They also highlight a distinct shift
in patterns of attendance.
Children and young people were also under-represented by the old statistics.
Average Weekly Attendance for children and young people in 2000 was
approximately 243,000, in a range (over a typical four week period) between
120,000 and 455,000, compared with a uSa in 1999 of 170,000.
Easter and Christmas attendance levels show significant increases on the
traditionally recorded communicant levels. While approximately 1.2million
people took communion at church and cathedral services at Easter 2000,
actual attendance was 40% greater at more than 1.6million. On Christmas Day
and Christmas Eve 2000, almost 2.9millionn people attended church and
cathedral services; more than double the 1.4million who took communion.
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